A FATHER hit out after a court refused to increase the jail sentence of a childminder who shook his five-month son to death.

After the Court of Appeal decision, Vijay Joshi said: "I have had to tell my wife that Rebecca Wilson, the woman who has destroyed our lives, will serve just 18 months for killing our baby Anil."

It was unsuccessfully argued on behalf of Attorney General Lord Goldsmith that the three-year sentence on mother-of-two Wilson was unduly lenient.

Lord Justice Rose, Mr Justice Gibbs and Mr Justice Stanley Burnton ruled that it was "impossible" to say that the sentence passed by the trial judge was unduly lenient.

Wilson, now 34, of Deane, Bolton, was found guilty in February of the manslaughter of Anil following a trial at Liverpool Crown Court.

During the trial, prosecutor Gary Burrell QC said Wilson had lost her self-control and shook Anil severely, causing fatal brain damage.

The jury heard that Anil had been placed by Mr Joshi, 41, and his wife Tejal, 34, with Wilson, who lived in the same road, six weeks before the fatal incident.

Lord Justice Rose ruled that the sentence was within the range open to the trial judge and that in passing what he recognised was a lenient sentence the trial judge "was exercising properly that judgment and discretion with which today's judges are still endowed".

Mr Joshi added: "We were not allowed to completely and properly bury our son for over two years.

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"Her children are safe and well and soon she can be reunited with them. We can never see Anil again.

"How can any rational person convince us that the justice system works after hearing the decision in London?

"As dedicated parents we have gone as far as we can, regardless of how much it has hurt, to get justice for Anil. This was our last stop and frankly it leaves us empty."

The trial judge, Mr Justice David Clarke, had told Wilson when sentencing her: "This case is a human tragedy, primarily, of course, for Anil and his loving and dignified parents, but, also, I fully recognise it is a human tragedy for you and your family. Only you know exactly what happened on January 8, 2003.

"But it has been clearly established that you unlawfully shook the baby with sufficient force to cause his death despite the best efforts of the ambulance crew and hospitals.

"I am satisfied that what you did must have been done in frustration and exasperation when he would not settle and you were overwrought.

"What I cannot overlook is that this was a child who had been placed in your care and protection."

The trial judge also said that the sentence might be seen by some as somewhat on the short side, but it "should not be compared with the value of the life lost, because that was priceless".

Defence QC Graham Wood said Wilson, who had no previous convictions, had a momentary loss of control.